With UN climate guru Rajendra Pachauri under fire for alleged conflicts of interest and the purveying of flawed “science,” another United Nations eco-official is stepping forward to defend UN climate findings.

His name is Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Program, or UNEP, based in Nairobi. If you are curious about potential conflicts of interest among the UN climate crowd, Steiner, along with Pachauri, is someone to watch.

Like Pachauri, Steiner is still talking about “overwhelming evidence” supporting the findings of Al Gore’s co-Nobelist Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — despite the growing body of evidence that the IPCC’s findings were more a product of UN politics than of science. In recent remarks featured as a top item on the UN’s official news site, Steiner has just praised the IPCC and re-issued the UN’s usual apocalyptic warnings: “Any delay… risks of a magnitude…urgent international response” — etc.

Who is Achim Steiner? A German, born in Brazil, he is a longtime environmentalist, former head from 2001-2006 of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN. (Sample of UN climate networking — take a deep breath, don’t even try to follow this, just roll with it: The IUCN has been phenomenally intertwined over the years with the UN cast of climate characters. When Steiner left the IUCN in 2006, he was succeeded there by a sister-in-law of a former U.S. ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke. This Holbrooke in-law, Julia Marton-Lefevre , in turn, had just finished serving as rector of the UN University for Peace, in Costa Rica, which had been greatly beefed up in the years prior to her arrival by the so-called godfather of the Kyoto Treaty, Maurice Strong – first head of the same UNEP that Achim Steiner now runs).

Anyway, in December, 2005, Achim Steiner served as a judge on a panel in Dubai that awarded a $500,000 environmental prize to then-Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan. With a big smile, at a banquet in Dubai, Annan — then the UN’s top official — accepted this six-figure purse for his personal use. About three months later, Annan named Steiner, one of the judges who picked Annan for the prize, to head UNEP.

Well, when the aim of the UN and its minions is a functioning global government with the power to tax and rule then it is a good idea to place ones’ elite friends at or near the levers of power. Seems self-evident that that is what is going on here.

These people are close enough, they believe, to smell the trillions of dollars the UN may get to distribute if the AGW crowd achieves its goal. That will make them rich beyond even their wildest dreams. The UN is notorious for waste, fraud, and mismanagement.

Deciphering the spaghetti is one of the most important ways to bring the corruption and the global agenda of the U.N. out into the open so that every U.S. citizen can make an informed opinion of this discredited and thuggish body of new world morons; and their agendas.

Maurice Strong figures in many little webs of intrigue around the world. They all come under the umbrella of one world government with one currency and one language. These people ar well aware of the shortcomings of democracies and how quickly they can be undermined. The one place they’re having trouble with is the Representative Republic called the U.S.A. That stubborn bastion of freedom; with the spirit of all the rest of the nations put together.

We don’t need to wonder if the U.N. needs to have clearer policies; they will never hold themselves accountable. They’re covering for each other in true thuggish style; but the whole thing is coming unravelled….one strand at a time.

From the World Bank to the Rive Gauche, these people have their hands in everything at every level conceivable….and they’re using the U.N. as just one vehicle to get what they want….

Thanks for connecting this important dot, Claudia. If the public and tax-paying citizens of our country really focused its attention to what’s happening and how much it’s already been fleeced, the outrage would make the Tea Party movement look tame.

….should have “a much clearer policy to prohibit and penalize conflicts of interest?”

I have a suggestion. If they, for some strange reason, got all motivated about quality control stuff, why don’t we start with the low-hanging fruit. Let’s see if they can come up with some procedure to stop their peacekeepers from raping the locals.

The UN is corrupt, from top to bottom! There is no program they start or policy they print that does not have as it’s core purpose, extortion, theft, kick-backs or graft. Why else would the governments of Nigeria and Illinois send their shiftiest folks to the UN for graduate training.

Richard Vail @ #3 and Meryl @ #11 are onto something. Yes we need to stop what the UN is doing and the best way to do that is simply to end the organization. In that regard, there was some talk of relocating the UN to Dubai. I think that is an excellent idea. Indeed, the US should encourage that move and when it happens, leave the organization. How long do you think the UN would last without the presence of the US?

Conflicts of interests, as in the oil for food program funds that was suppose to go to the suffering Iraqi people but instead went to all those UN officials selling oil rights to Sadam’s oil production? Were not most of those benefiting from the oil for food program the French politicians and French president, and Sadam’ sons? Wasn’t that program part of the embargo to keep Sadam in a box so we wouldn’t have to remove the dictator for acts of genocide on his people. As usual, the UN is touted as that paragon of international law, usually by lawyers confusing the rule of lawyers and gentlemen’s agreements with the rule law. Whatever. No wonder the same lawyers had a problem with Sadam’s hanging. It’s all about never ending due process and the appearance of justice. Curiously, when Clinton did the Balkan War without a UN security counsel authorization no one raised a stink about an “illegal war.” It’s funny how when Bush enforced UN resolutions and their implied consequences by removing Sadam–and congress was on board for that–it’s now an “illegal war” after the going got rough.

The only justification I can see for US involvement in the UN is the “it’s another opportunity to talk” line.

Considering that the UN is dominated by anti-Americanism, and the talk either goes nowhere or goes against US interests, considering the ineffectiveness of UN actions, I don’t see that it’s worth the time & money.

John Bolton in “Surrender is Not an Option” suggests the only way to change it is to go from assessed contributions to voluntary contributions. The US has withheld its assessment in the past, and should base payment on performance. This would boil down to $0.

Sorry. The UN is as much a blight to the global political realm as a horde of locusts is to any crop.

An Alliance of Democracies is the best route to the future. One group would be those European countries which
would appreciate more room, than what they have, under the EU’s current rules, to deal with their balance sheets
being in tatters. Another group would be the successful members of the British Commonwealth. The other group
would be the Asian tigers.

The first thing I would do if I were president-WITHDRAW from the UN. The UN is nothing more than a punch of anti-american, freedom hating vermin. Maurice Strong? Oh hes such a great “environmentalist”, but yet he lives in RED CHINA,the worlds most polluted country. And now we get another version of the oil-for-food program? Thats what the climategate scam really is. This Indian punk “scientist” is nothing more than the Indian version of ALWHORE. I wonder how many millions this scum made of this scam? From what Ive heard, this guy has also written an x-rated book with taxpayer money. The firing squad on this guy should take place ASAP.

“The Audi super bown ‘green police’ ad looks to be ripe for comment. Is this the moment the green movement jumped the shark?”

I suspect Audi hoped it would be received as inane enough to be funny and memorable. My impression was that it was inane enough to impress people as stupid, but not inane enough to be funny. I wouldn’t assign much meaning to it beyond that. With apologies to the great philosopher Marx, (Groucho, not Karl), sometimes a stupid forgettable commercial is just a stupid forgettable commercial.

#13 jack, about 15 minutes.
The problem is leaving the UN. While in reality, there is nothing the UN can do to make the USA stay, AFAIK there is no formal process for leaving. Not real sure about that. I have read the UN Charter many times and aced a test on it decades ago, but just because I didn’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not here.
Most treaties have a formal process and time period for withdrawal. I don’t remember seeing one in either the UN charter or the GCIV. GCI had a paragraph on withdrawal, as did the League of nations. Not sure if those clauses carry over.
The UN Charter is so contradictory as to be useless anyway. The Charter says no nations has the right to wage war without UNSC permission, then it turns around and says Every nation has the right to self-defense and the no war thingie is subordinate to that. The Charter also says the UN cannot interfer with the internal affairs of a nation without a chapter 7 UNSC resolution. Yet they do so often. Mostly with WHO missions and other ‘global government’ efforts.
What would be better then withdrawing from the UN would be sitting on the UNSC and vetoing EVERY resolution. Don’t give them a penny more then any other nation and wait for everybody to go home.

’08-09 UN budget was 4.19 billion, of which the USA was billed 22%. The USA should pay about 5%, since that is about how many Americans there are.
The ONLY politician on the horizon with the balls to slap down the UN is Sara.

In the final analysis, the United Nations is as corrupted as any institution in our time. The intertwined connections of individuals & organizations makes incest look pale in comparison.
But, its not just follow the money. Money is a major factor, but power is the ultimate factor. The UN & the cabal running the show either from the inside or from the outside (all those affiliated NGO’s & their wealthy patrons), have been working on Marice Strong’s plans for global government for decades. Strong knew way back global warming could be used to create an international global government.
Strong also knew the UN was worthless unless they could find lucrative funding streams that were uncontested to each of the dues member states pay.
America & others demand responses & results for their contributions. But, global taxes on travel, on carbon, & on a plethora of other items, would give the UN multiple unconnected funding streams that no one nation could control.
Hence, dues would become secondary to what the UN will end up with. They will concoct a fee for nations to be permitted to be a member of the UN. That fee would give the member nation nothing but a membership sticker to put on their window.
The UN seeks one world government. T”They & they alone” would control world government and world finances.
They want the money AND the power over it & the people associated with it. They are as dangerous as any of histories socialist thugs. They represent a new world order of those well connected who will establish themselves as above the rest of us. Not because they are better or brighter or wealthier (although they will be wealthier), but because they will have the position to effect control over others & power is where its at!
Many of us regular folk (the unwashed masses) will want to see many of these greedy thugs go to jail. They must be totally discredited as the totalitarian seeking animals they are.
This time, we cannot let politico’s do a whitewash of facts & consequences. This time, the guilty must pay in money, jail time, & destroyed reputations!
Don’t do the crime if you can’t pay the time!